No Changes For Hospitals County Will Wait On Plan To Consolidate 3 Districts

March 12, 1986|By Ramsey Campbell of The Sentinel Staff

TAVARES — Plans to consolidate Lake County's three hospital taxing districts this year were postponed Tuesday by Lake County commissioners, who said they wouldn't feel comfortable asking the state Legislature to make a change now in the district system.

The county for several months has been wrestling with the possibility of consolidating the three hospital taxing districts. A commission-appointed hospital cost containment committee recommended consolidation and the commission has told legislators the county might want legislative action on the issue this year.

The commission late last year backed off a request for a referendum on hospital district consolidation after hospital officials asked for time to submit an alternate plan. County officials have pushed for consolidation as a method of getting more say in how tax money is being spent for indigent care. Zeb Osborne, an attorney for Waterman Medical Center in the Northeast Hospital District, presented a plan Tuesday to model the district after the Northwest District, which offers a closer accounting of how tax money is spent. Osborne said the change would address the commission's principal concern.

Officials for the Northwest District have agreed to modifications that would give the commission more leverage in how tax money is spent at Leesburg Regional.

But hospital officials said they were unable to get an agreement for a revised district system involving all three hosptial districts because the South Lake Hospital District has been adamant about keeping its district as is.

Osborne said the Northeast and Northwest district could agree to changes that would give the commission a greater role in how tax money is spent for indigent care.

But Osborne said he is not recommending a change this year because of proposed changes in state law regarding indigent care.

''The issue is a statewide issue,'' said Osborne.

Commissioner Claude Smoak Jr. said he doesn't want to rush in with a change in the district until the county knows what it wants to accomplish.

The commission asked the cost containment committee to prepare a policy statement about the direction of the hospital districts, which will be passed on to the legislative delegation.